With the upgrade of Gosford completed including adding the Overhead Wiring from Hawkesbury River & sprucing up most of the Stations to Broadmeadow in late 2023 as described in my previous Blog entries, this section of the Main North is almost complete, my layout video needs upgrading, see:
Since my web site is no longer up there, details of the layout & the Track Plans are included below:
The layout is located in the downstairs part of the house, initially in one spare bedroom in 1990 but since the kids have left home, I have taken over the lot, in:
3.6 x 3.0 metre Train Room (previously a Bedroom), where the Main North started.
7.0 x 6.0 metre Hobby Room (previously a Double Car Garage), with the floor 300 mm lower than in the Train Room.
3.0 x 2.0 metre area adjacent to the Hobby Room (previously under house storage).
6.0 x 4.5 metre Crew Room (previously a Rumpus room), adjacent to the Train Room entrance & stairs up to the main part of the house. Visitors to the Main North, access the Crew Room via the driveway, Shed & Crew Room side entrance, without disturbing the Boss.
The Main North is a walk around layout on mainly two levels providing a long “run”, without having a Helix, utilizing 3 Peninsulas in the garage.
Starting off at Sydney Staging, 120 mms below Broadmeadow & slowly climbing to Werris Creek that's 410 mms above Broadmeadow, then onto West Tamworth, above Sulphide Junction then onto Armidale Staging above Newcastle Station.
There are many hills/grades on the real Main North. I was able to model 2 of the 3 “prototype” grades, I wanted to model – the 12 km, 1 in 40 climb from Murrurundi to Ardglen, where for Down Goods trains > 250 tons, required the use of Rear End Bankers. When selecting an era & location to model, it was this is "banking" operation that determined what I wanted to model. The second "grade" is the Fassifern Bank, south of Broadmeadow.
Sydney to Broadmeadow is dual main line & the Broadmeadow to Werris Ck is a single line.
Broadmeadow to Werris Ck is signaled with Lower Quadrant Semaphores complete with Occupancy Detection for the 4 Blocks – Broadmeadow to Murrurundi, Murrurundi to Pangela, Pangela to Ardglen & Ardglen to Werris Ck, allowing for bi directional running without any "head ons", if the Operators obey the Semaphores.
The overall length of the layout is 120 metres (400 feet), excluding the 2 Return Loops at Sydney & Tamworth, makes the Main North, a “Dog Bone” style of layout, providing continuous running, if desired & easy turning of trains.
Since my web site has gone but I still have the Articles, If anyone needs any of the web site Articles, I'm only too happy to send it, please contact me at mammann@optusnet.com.au
